Monday, March 25, 2013

Great night performing at the Bluebird in Nashville last night. Heard some great songwriters and also Rich Fagan, who had hits for George Strait, John Michael Montgomery, and others. The show, Nashville, has taken this place over the top. Folks who never had a clue about the BB, or music for that matter, are driving up in lines to take photos of themselves at the place as they would at Disney, the Southernmost Point in Key West, or the Grand Canyon. While many clubs are trying to figure out how to get customers with karaoke, D.J.'s, and tired sounding classic rock bands, it is wonderful to see folks waiting for hours to pile in to see and hear songwriters they have never heard of playing songs they've never heard. The Bluebird has always been successful as the top songwriter venue and has launched many successful careers. It is also a beautiful thing that the BB requires customers to shut the hell up while the writer is performing, something that the general clueless population just doesn't understand as they blatantly spew idle chatter in endless bars everywhere while musicians are rudely ignored. In the meantime, I'll just keep writing and recording songs minus the bling-bling. Who knows... maybe you might even hear one. Speaking of bling-bling... I did step in some once and had a bitch of a time kicking it off my boots.

Saturday, February 2, 2013

June of 2013 marks the 40th anniversary
of the Roger Wilson Guitar Studio of Atlanta, Georgia. My first location was at
220 Pharr Road in the Buckhead neighborhood of North Atlanta, from 1973 to
1980. It was then located at 2796 Piedmont Road from 1980 until 1985. The
business operated full-time during that period, but is still in existence today
in Kennesaw, GA as an online forum. During the 12 years in Atlanta that the
brick and mortar location existed, I had
the pleasure of teaching guitar to hundreds of people that passed through the
doors at both locations. The story of the studio is an interesting one. In
early 1973, I was attending college in my home state of New Jersey, but I wanted
to return to Georgia after having attended high school there at Woodward
Academy in College Park from 1967 to 1972. I had already been exposed to and
was now saturated with the desire to pursue music as a lifetime career. A
friend made a few phone calls for me to look for any possible music oriented
job opportunities, and contacted a gentleman named Sidney Ayscue, who owned and
operated the Buckhead Music Studio in North Atlanta. I spoke with Sidney
several times on the phone and I decided to head back to Atlanta and make a go
of this potential opportunity. When I arrived back in Atlanta in June of 1973
at age 19, Sidney allowed me to move into a room in the studio by agreeing to
try to expand, but realistically to build a guitar teaching business. My only
teaching experience was about 6 months at a little music store in Matawan, New
Jersey, while my knowledge of the guitar and music was already that of 10
years. Sidney and I named our new operation the Atlantis Music Studio, which
placed it in the "A" section of the Yellow Pages. Sidney and I worked
together for about a year before Sidney was starting to lose interest in
teaching and wanted to change his life's direction. One day in August of 1974,
while sitting at my desk in my small studio, the phone company called inquiring
about the phone bill, which was apparently overdue. When I explained to the
gentleman on the phone the situation of lately not seeing my partner, Sidney,
around for a few days, the writing on the wall was evident that I had to make a
quick decision. I was then a year into teaching fulltime, and I was making an
OK living teaching guitar lessons. I still needed the phone, but I would have
to open a new account, under a new name. The phone company guy stated that the
Atlantis Music Studio account was now delinquent and asked me what name I would
like to use. In having to make a split second decision, I told the gentleman to
open the account under "The Roger
Wilson Guitar Studio". As I said that, the words seem to fall out like a 2
ton boulder. It sounded really weird. Being all of 20 years old, I wondered who
in the world would ever take me seriously. The next day, I walked around the
corner to the phone company and put down the $50.00 deposit, which seemed like
a fortune at the time, on the new phone service. From that day on, the journey
began.

While I had been teaching each
of my students the traditional approach of reading music, it was apparent to me
that it was a tedious method. Some related to it OK, and some just weren’t
looking to be that serious about it. One day, a kid showed up for his lesson
with an electric guitar and a record album. He had no idea of any guitar basics.
I don’t recall the album he brought, but it may have been Led Zeppelin IV. I do
remember it was a song, probably Black Dog, that he wanted to learn.

After explaining to him that
he really needed to learn to learn some basic technique before taking on any
advanced material. He said, “Yea, I know… but just show me something on this
album I can have fun with”. While I was
tuning up to the song, I guess I played one of the song’s signature licks. He
said excitedly, “Show me that, show me that! After trying to eek out the part I
showed him for about the last 20 minutes, he promised to go home and practice
it until he had it perfected for the next lesson. When he left, I remember that
was grinning from ear to ear. I sat there stunned wondering what had just
happened. After that, my phone never stopped ringing, and kids were carpooling 4
at a time in their parents’ cars to come take guitar lessons from “the guy that
will teach you what you want to learn… and make it fun”. I always loved it when
they left happy, having fun, and of course, telling their friends.Thanks for 40 years!